COMMUNITY COMMENT: Bucshon's plan abandons our responsibilities

I was struck with the tone of Rep. Larry Buschon’s latest email. As far as he is concerned, the deficit’s the thing. Not jobs or recovery from the Great Recession, just spending. Now, as our population grows, so does spending, but of late the spending increases have been at their lowest since under Ike, following the Korean War.

Our spending history since Ronald Reagan’s era has been beyond our federal income — Reagan increased defense spending while reducing federal tax receipts, regardless that the Soviet Union expired internally and not due to Reagan’s spending. Then, after Clinton’s having reduced deficit as a percentage of GDP by a third, G.W. Bush destroyed our gains against deficit with unfunded wars, unfunded tax cuts and Medicare Part D, also on the national credit card — the gifts that keeps on giving.

As a sovereign nation that prints its own money, we, as a nation, can borrow at unprecedentedly low interest rates, and the deficit hawks’ admonition that our national credit would be ruined or that inflation would follow have both proven to be false assertions.

Why would Republicans wish us to, like Britain, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, or even Greece, reverse our slow recovery with a return to recession? I haven’t a clue as to their thinking, but have invited Dr. Buschon and his wife to dinner so we could discuss what’s up with that. Whether Adam Smith, or Keynes’s view of economics, austerity in a downturn doesn’t work.

Just look at what Republicans propose: reduce spending on health care, whether Medicare or Medicaid, and on Social Security, even. None of those options reduces our personal costs or our national economic health. Our biggest problem is the gains in wealth of our richest cohort while middle class income stagnates. Call me a socialist, but income inequality, driven by upper class income tax rebates and inequitable laws are the problem.

Who are the Democratic or Republican beneficiaries of these “no new taxes” policies — the wealthiest among us, eh? Despite the fact that our corporations are making historically large profits while the rest of us, including my patients who can’t afford what they need, suffer, corporate tax liability is at its lowest in a century! In that regard, I fully support Sen. Bernie Sanders’s bill to reign in offshore tax havens for American corporations. As well, those of us who earn more than $250,000 should be paying higher taxes as well as contributing to FICA beyond the current $110,000 limit.

You know, since the Great Depression, we’ve had a consensus of thought in our country that we care for our elderly, our minorities, our poor and our vets whether disabled by PTSD, loss of limbs or just unemployed, yet our Republican right wing friends would have us renege on those promises. I think we’re better than that. Time moves forward, history moves forward, and our national responsibility should as well.